WPR18LA012 · Cirrus Design Corp SR22T GTS

The private pilot departed for a cross-country flight in the high-performance single-engine airplane. Immediately after the airplane became airborne, it remained in ground effect longer than usual, and he perceived a change in engine power, and the airplane did not climb as expected. The pilot then chose to abort the takeoff; however, with limited runway available, the airplane overran the end of the runway and then struck a ditch and came to rest on the perimeter road.

Postaccident examination of the airframe and engine did not reveal any evidence of preimpact anomalies that would have precluded normal operation, and review of data from the airplane's data recording system revealed that the engine was operating normally and accelerating appropriately. However, the data also indicated that the flaps were fully retracted during takeoff, rather than set to 50%, as recommended in the Pilot's Operating Handbook. The data further revealed that the pilot checked the operation of the flaps during the preflight check but failed to move them to the takeoff setting as required by the Before-Takeoff checklist. Although takeoff with fully retracted flaps is permissible, the airplane manufacturer does not provide performance data for that configuration, and the pilot was likely not used to the airplane's altered handling characteristics under such conditions.

Although an accurate assessment of whether the pilot could have stopped the airplane after rotation could not be made due to the lack of performance data for a retracted flaps takeoff, it is likely that, with prompt recognition of the reduced performance, the pilot could have stopped the airplane before it overran the runway; however, surveillance video, recorded data, and the pilot's recollection indicated that he did not reduce the engine power and subsequently apply the brakes until the airplane reached the end of the runway.

The pilot had recently been issued his private pilot certificate and had purchased the high-performance single-engine airplane about 1 month before the accident. He had accrued just over 22 hours of solo flight time, all in the accident make and model. It is likely that the pilot's lack of experience in the high-performance airplane led to his failure to respond to the airplane's altered flight characteristics due to the incorrect flaps setting.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset